Nadeem Khan, a prominent civil rights activist, was placed under effective house arrest at his Delhi office on Tuesday morning as police sought to prevent him from attending a planned protest at Jantar Mantar against attacks on places of worship and the exclusion of citizens through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
According to a statement circulating from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), where Khan serves as national secretary, police arrived at his office at around 9:30 am and kept him confined there, preventing him from leaving to join the demonstration. The action came after the Monitoring Committee of Indian Muslims had given a call for the protest, planned for 3 pm at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Khan, also the founder of the group United Against Hate, has said the police action was blatantly illegal, and accused Delhi Police of keeping him under what he called office arrest specifically to stop him from attending the protest.
This is not the first time Khan has run into confrontation with the police. He was previously booked by Delhi Police over a video the force said risked promoting enmity between communities, and the Delhi High Court had to step in last year to grant him protection from arrest while that case proceeded. He was also named, without being formally accused in court, in connection with unrest last year in Uttar Pradesh linked to the “I Love Muhammad” protests, though he was not among those arrested in that case.
Tuesday’s action fits into a broader pattern of friction between Delhi Police and protesters gathering at Jantar Mantar in recent days.
Just last Friday, police had moved in with the Rapid Action Force to disperse a separate gathering at the same site, where activists, students and opposition leaders had assembled to demand accountability from the Election Commission of India and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the conduct of the SIR exercise.
Several journalists covering that protest alleged they were manhandled and detained, with the Press Club of India later demanding a police apology.
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com. Read the full story here.
